15 sept 2012
A femur bone of a Diprotodon - a giant wombat-like marsupial - was found on a cattle station in the Territory's north west last week and has now been transferred to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.
The station owner contacted the Museum when he found the bone and scientists instantly identified the 77cm-long femur as a fossil.
Dr Adam Yates said the diprotodon - which is the largest marsupial in the world, and possibly the largest animal to inhabit Australia at the same time as humans - shares ancestors with the wombat.
He said the discovery is very rare for tropical parts of Australia.
"To have a whole new fossil site suddenly become available is a fantastic thrill - now I've got a whole new site to work on," he told 105.7 Afternoons.
"It's a promise there could be all sorts of other things - that's what makes it so exciting."
Scientists have yet to date the bone, but say it could be anywhere between 12,000 and 2.5 million years old.
"There's a lot of controversy around why megafauna died out...and to find out why we need lots of good dated sites."
It is unknown whether the animal was male or female, or whether more bones may also remain at the site.
"We don't know yet what we are going to find there - we have one bone coming out of the ground which is extremely exciting so we don't know what we are going to find," Dr Yates said.
"Bones usually become scattered as animal dies and decays," he said, adding that wind, rain and rivers usually see a full skeleton dispersed over large areas, with only select bones ever making it to fossilisation.
"For a fossil, a bone has to be buried, and buried in the right situation and stay there long enough for it to fossilise."
Staff at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory have nicknamed the femur 'Shirley'.
Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/09/14/3590460.htm
